The Government has moved a step closer to introducing a national identity number for every citizen in the State.
By 2002, everyone will be issued with a public service card (PSC) containing a unique personal number which will help cut out cumbersome form-filling and red tape when dealing with Government departments.
It has emerged that the public service number will allow for inter-departmental swapping of information in a number of service areas, such as social welfare, revenue, health, education, agriculture, and local government.
The Government believes the scheme will be a powerful weapon in the fight against fraud and abuse of publicly funded services.
Provisions in the Social Welfare Act allowing for the introduction of the personal public service number are exempt from the Data Protection Act, which forbids disclosure of personal information to a third party.
The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, has recently introduced amendments to the Social Welfare Bill to increase the specified bodies authorised to use the public service number as the State moves towards the full implementation of the scheme.
For example, it has now been agreed that the National Breast Screening Board can use public service numbers to compile and maintain a register of women to be invited to participate in the screening programme.
And also an amendment to legislation will allow the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to provide details to local authorities of tenants in receipt of rent supplement.
Some 43,000 tenants receive the rent allowance at any one time, at a cost of u £113 million a year to the State.
The Government launched the public service card and number initiative under the REACH programme, which is responsible for implementing the card, in July of last year. Mr Ahern has told The Irish Times that the he will shortly appoint a director to the REACH unit.
Some £11 million has been made available to the REACH unit for technology, consultancy and production costs of the PSC. According to Mr Ahern, the public service card will help streamline State benefits.
He said the PSC would be the citizen's secure key to access public services and databases. It would also allow for the development of e-commerce between the citizen and public agencies.
The Government has recently agreed to the establishment of a new cross-departmental unit to advance the PSC initiative.